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12 posts from January 2010

January 31, 2010

It always amazes me when I click to download a white paper or register for a webinar and am confronted by a 20-field lead generation form. Unless it's something I want very badly, I tend to click the back button and move on to something more appealing. Then again, I'm a marketer, so sometimes I fill out the form to see what the company will do in response. I have to say that I'm rarely surprised by something amazing and unexpected.

I bet I've submitted my contact information close to fifty times during the last year. Maybe more. I do a lot of research for client projects.

I've never received one direct mail piece from being required to fill out my street address.

I've received a few phone calls from inept people who had no real idea why they were calling me, except to see if I wanted to buy. In fact, not many of them that I remember even knew what interaction I'd had with the company, just that I'd had one.

What I do get is a bunch of garbage emails. You know what I'm talking about. Company focused feeds and speeds and pablum that I could care less about.

Although they've asked for my title on the form, most of the stuff I get has no relation to my role or responsibilities.

Although they know what I downloaded or registered for (they should), quite often the follow-on communications have no recognizable connection to my expressed interest.

Most forms ask for my company name, some of them my website URL. But, beyond occasionally having my company name prefill a field within the text of the email, they don't use it to learn anything about me or my company. The offers are so ridiculous that it's obvious they never used the URL information either. Even if the text says they've "browsed my website and want to discuss how their [product, solution, services] can help me" attain success by using whatever it is they're selling - that's generally not true.

My favorite thing on a form is the dropdown where I can choose "just researching." The sad part about that field is that companies use it as a way to eliminate the effort expended on their part to get to know me better. It eliminates the ridiculous sales follow-up, but what if it was used to make sure that I know about every new white paper or report they produce with related information? Why do companies assume that when I'm researching, I only need that one piece?

Here comes a radical idea:

What if forms were designed with the prospect in mind?

What if forms asked questions that actually helped companies learn more about their audience so they can create better, more relevant content?

What if a rule was made that every field of information collected had to be used to generate something valuable for gaining more prospect attention, creating interactions and propelling conversational opportunities?

Some possibilities are:

In addition to reading this white paper, I'd be interested in reading...[drop down list of other related content]

My biggest concern in relation to [the "offer's" topic] is [list of choices]

I'd like information about how to talk to my [boss, CIO, end users, VP of...] about how [this topic] could impact them.

I'd be interested in knowing about how this topic is impacting this industry [list of choices].

Those are just a few ideas. But, start thinking about how you can put that kind of intelligence to work. It's a prospect and customer-driven marketplace. What are you doing to make sure your company has its focus in the right place?

January 28, 2010

I was on a call this morning when a discussion came up about when B2B lead nurturing should stop. Many companies believe this should happen once the lead is qualified and handed over to sales for pursuit. I take issue with this approach because it maintains the division between marketing and sales, instead of promoting a fluid, more holistic approach that encompasses the entire buying process—and beyond.

Here are a few reasons why putting a hard stop on your nurturing programs isn't the best idea:

Stage in the buying process: Most of the companies I work with have a longer-term buying cycle. At the time a lead may say they're ready for a sales conversation there may still be months before the purchase decision is made. Ceasing to continue sharing more of the storyline the lead is interested in can slow momentum or cause them to go seek the remaining information they need somewhere else. Of course, this assumes your content is mapped to buying stages...

Change in tone: If your lead has been engaging with the valuable content marketing has been sharing and now they're receiving sales offers or "checking to see if you're ready to buy" emails from a salesperson, you've stopped delivering value and flipped your focus from them to you. Don't think they won't notice.

Bump in the test drive: Lead nurturing is often included in the lead's evaluation of what it may be like to work with your company. If your marketing-to-sales process is disconnected, how will they interpret the way that reflects on what their treatment will be like if they become a customer? Instead, consider how a well coordinated and consistent experience from end-to-end will improve their perception of your company.

Stopping and starting nurturing programs is like riding in the car with a student driver. Not the smoothest experience you can have on the road.

Consider that marketing needs to nurture across all phases of the life cycle. To achieve fluidity, consider the following:

When a lead is engaged by sales, continue nurturing and copy the sales person so they know the parts of the storyline the prospect is engaging with. This also gives the sales rep an ongoing source of conversation starters related to the problem the lead is trying to solve so they can continue to help the lead take next steps toward purchase.

Provide related late-stage content that salespeople can offer to their leads in line with the ongoing story the leads are receiving via nurturing touches.

Upon purchase, your lead (now customer) should transition into the customer nurturing track you've created for customers who chose your company to solve similar problems. You do have one, right?

Nurturing is valuable for all stages of prospect, lead and customer relationships. It's not just for pre-purchase activities and it shouldn't ever stop—not unless they ask you to. And, that's a whole other issue.

January 25, 2010

I'm getting a lot of questions these days about content marketing. Thank you one and all! I love that B2B marketers are working on embracing the idea of content marketing, but I'd like to point out that there's a better way to go about it than focusing first on format.

The focus for developing a content strategy should first be applied to:

Buyers, Prospects, Customers and Influencers - in other words The People whose attention you want to catch...and to keep.

Priorities, Problems, Issues, Objectives, Needs and Situations - in other words whatever it is they may need your help to overcome, solve or achieve to meet their business objectives.

Buying stages - in other words the right information at the right time for wherever your prospects are in their buying process.

Format (white papers, articles, blog posts, video, case studies, etc.) comes after we've determined what story we're going to tell our audience to help them learn all they need to know to make a purchase decision in our favor.

Format is selected based on purpose, distribution options, depth and more. If you start with format, it's likely you'll end up with one-off content that doesn't attract the kind of extended attention you need to get a people to stick with you all the way through their buying process.

Marketer 1: "Topic X is hot right now. Let's write about that and how our Whiz Bang 7 solution applies."

Marketer 2: "Sounds good. I'll have Sam do the research and write a draft."

You may scoff, but I see this happen all the time. There's not one mention of audience in that discussion. There's not any plan for how to leverage the "hot topic" for additional reach. There's no parallel consideration for tie-ins to any other content the company has. There's no thought about market positioning.

Next month, what do you think the discussion will be?

Instead, consider this type of scenario:

Marketer 1: "We got a tremendous response to the article we used for a nurturing touch last month about why companies need to do Z. How can we expand that story?"

Marketer 2: "I was listening out on the LinkedIn group and heard that people are concerned about how this issue will affect productivity."

Marketer 1: "Great. Let's get our ideas out there and help them learn what they need to know. Let's brainstorm what other questions may come up for them after we address productivity and write a series we can use in a variety of places.

"I want 2 blog posts, 3 successive articles for our nurturing program and have Sam go see Doug in R&D and gather some stats to back up our assertions. We'll incorporate those into a white paper that links back to the articles to see just how interested our audience is in the topic.

"Oh, and make sure that we include a reference back to that first article for those who haven't seen it."

Marketer 2: "What about using some snips from the webinar our VP did last month? We could create a 2 minute slidecast on this great point she made that fits with the subject and put it on the web site when we launch the white paper."

Marketer 1: "Love it! Next let's talk about the takeaways we want them to have and the calls to action. We've got to make sure we build in some metrics for the guys upstairs."

This is the kind of thinking marketers need to shift toward if they're going to get the best results from their content marketing. It's not a full-blown strategy, but it is a heck of a lot better than "we need a white paper."

Just a few thoughts for those who may be wondering how to get started. What do you think?

January 21, 2010

You've heard me say many times that in order to have your marketing programs pay off, you've got to really KNOW your buyers. I get asked a lot of questions about just how to find out.

Well, here's one way: Genius.com and DemandGen Report are jumping into the fray to help us out. They're conducting a survey that asks a set of questions designed to help us learn just how the conversation has changed for our buyers. The survey is multiple choice and won't take longer than 5 - 7 minutes to complete.

So, here's the BIG ASK:

They need your help by participating and/or persuading people who have made a solution purchase recently to share experiences and insights about factors that played a part in the decision process by taking the survey.

Now, here's the RETURN:

One lucky participant will win an Amazon® Kindle® [fingers crossed on that one!]

Everyone who participates will receive a preview of the report.

The plan after that is to publish the report in conjunction with a webinar to walk us all through their findings so we can see just how the paradigm shift has changed buying reality and provide tips on how to use that information to refine and tune our marketing programs.

And that's information we can all use.

Please take the survey, pass it along to a colleague you know has bought something in the last year, Tweet about it, update your LinkedIn status and anything else you can think of.

Yes, I have selfish reasons. I really want those results to be rock solid and definitive. We can do some grand things with insights into the buyers' conversation and how they make progress toward purchase.

January 19, 2010

You've launched a lead generation program that's done a terrific job of getting people to opt in for more of your great content. The flow of leads remains steady and your follow-on nurturing program is kicking into high gear. Things are looking really impressive until about the fifth "touch" when movement comes to a screeching halt.

What happened?

Fear of failure.

Lack of confidence.

Conflicting beliefs.

Unanswered questions.

Pick your poison. Any way you slice it their risk perception just shot off the charts causing them to dig in their heels.

Given a chance, many people will "what if...?" themselves until their ability to make an active decision dies.

Generating leads is not the same thing as creating active demand that produces sales-ready opportunities. Complex sales with longer buying processes take a lot of effort - both for you and for your prospects. They're usually big deals with a lot at stake for the buying committee.

One way to do that is with implementation content. This kind of content is built to show how your expertise helps customers overcome problems discovered midway through projects, or even unknowns that surface. It's the down and dirty stuff that never makes it into those slick customer stories that make even the most complex projects appear to have never had a blip.

In order to do this well, you need to find out what the "blips" were. You can do this by talking to your salespeople, account managers, customer service reps, deployment teams - whoever is involved in project implementation. Don't forget to speak with your customers. Ask them what impressed them the most during implementation. Their answers are likely to include those saves that we're looking for.

Some possible scenarios you can explore with this content could include:

Process change that affected other departments not considered - what steps did you take to help smooth the ripple effect to keep from disrupting work flows?

Rigidity of legacy systems that caused implementation plans to shift - how agile is your company in working around proprietary system issues?

Unexpected user adoption issues - what steps did you take to help your customer turn this around?

Unexpressed expectations from peripheral team members that weren't factored into the original plan - even if you didn't know about them from the start, how did you make it right once you did?

The point is that even if what you promise sounds fantastic, complex projects always have some degree of risk associated with them. By creating marketing content that shows prospects you're well prepared to deal competently with whatever their situation throws at you, you can get them unstuck from the middle of your funnel and keep them moving forward.

Making complex purchase decisions requires confidence. A lot of it. It's up to you to help your prospects gain the level of confidence they need to put their trust in your company.

January 17, 2010

There seems to be a belief that content marketing is a "wait and see" strategy. That we send our content out into the universe and then sit back and wait for our prospects to come calling on our salespeople. At the risk of sounding repetitive, that's why we need an eMarketing strategy.

If you're relying on passive engagement with your content to do all the heavy lifting on it's own, you could be waiting a while.

To be effective, content marketing needs to be considered an active sport. Unless your content is designed to motivate additional activity in relation to a prospect's buying process needs, then it's not working hard enough for the money, time and effort invested to produce it.

Active content can be designed to provoke a variety of responses including:

sharing of ideas and information presented by the content

clicks deeper into related content to learn more

spending enough time to actually read the content

comments on blog posts

Tweets to larger networks beyond your reach

opting in to receive more content on a topic of interest

forward to friend (influencer, stakeholder)

registration for webinars

spending an hour attending a webinar

participation in Q&A during a webinar

recognition when the company calls to follow-up

willingness to engage in conversation when they call

replying to an email with a question the content provoked

placing a call to the company to learn information specific to their situation

But these types of responses don't often happen on their own. It takes strategy with a well-crafted execution plan...and some patience. Content marketing designed to create pipeline momentum requires that content be designed with response goals in mind. It may take a number of touches before the prospect takes the action, but stick with it. Persistence and consistency pay off.

Every content asset you share must promote some kind of activity. Don't overlook the idea that having inside sales place a call related to a business reason with the offer of additional content that the prospect may be interested in receiving as a form of content marketing. After all, orchestrating conversations relevant to your prospects falls into the content realm, as well.

We need to broaden our thinking in relation to the purpose we assign to content. It's not just about sharing information your prospects find valuable and relevant. It's about provoking them to take steps in their buying process. The more of them they take in response to your content, the higher likelihood that you'll be on their short list.

So, what are you doing to help your content marketing programs promote active responses?

January 13, 2010

Becoming a thought leader in their market space is something many companies are setting out to achieve. And, for good reason. Today's B2B buyers turn to search engines and the Internet to gather information about solving their problems. If you're not found - and considered valuable - you're not in the running.

Prospects want thoughtful ideas and strategic insights geared just for them. They're looking for validation that solving the problem will pay off. They want help building a business case and the ammunition to convince others to take a step on the wild side, instead of sitting firmly in status quo. They're also looking to validate expertise in order to minimize risk. Hence, thought leadership.

Did you catch the critical point?

Geared just for them.

Thought leadership is not one-size-fits-all. It still has to be designed for the intended audience to be useful.

Examples of when thought leadership, well, isn't:

For some reason, I've seen companies think they can return to product pumping and chest thumping under the auspices of thought leadership. Umm...no.

When your prospects just want something that works and you go all high-level on them with ideas they can never bring to life because of culture, size or market relevance.

If you go too far and talk down to them.

Too much stick and not enough carrot.

Applying every principle you discuss to your product's features when you promised insights about the ramifications of the problem, itself.

Promising a white paper and delivering one page of insight tacked onto the front of your solution brief.

Referencing outdated sources to justify your take on a cutting-edge problem. The world is moving faster than that.

These are just a few examples that come to mind. We need to realize that our prospects expectations are increasing. Every impression sets expectations and we've got to deliver on them if we expect to actually get in the conversation.

January 10, 2010

The objective of products and solutions is to solve a prospect's problems.

So why doesn't more marketing content discuss why the problems persist in the first place?

Your prospects aren't stupid. They're doing the best they can with what they have to work with. It's likely that they've established workarounds to address the highest pain point and come up with a way to live with the situation at hand. (Or they'd be your customer already.)

Marketing content usually talks about why prospects need to solve the problem, what they'll get if they do and why ignoring it will wreak havoc. But when was the last time you saw compelling content designed to show prospects that the company behind it understands their perspective about what they're dealing with in their current situation?

I'll take a stab and say that it's because we haven't taken the time to really get to know our prospects. We try to market to them like they're all in the same boat, after the fact. And that's not true.

Imagine the potential to build a relationship with your prospects based on the source or origination point of the problem. That would be like the "instant oatmeal" of relevance, wouldn't it?

Then as they're nodding their heads in agreement you show them how your approach is designed to answer that exact problem because you understand and can get to the root of the issue—not just overlay a quick fix that will degenerate into another problem in the future.

Wouldn't that be valuable? Think about what it could do for your credibility, word of mouth, referrals and more. People like to be around others who understand them. But to understand someone we often have to delve beneath the surface.

To get beneath the surface of your prospects' problems, you need to discard your version of the problem and focus on a specific prospect type. In fact, the nature of the true problem is a better way of creating segments than relying on demographics alone. This is where a buyer synopsis can help. (Persona + Problem-to-Solution scenario)

So let's back up and look at root causes:

is the problem caused by quick expansion?

was it caused by a shift in industry regulations?

perhaps it was caused by a strategy shift at the executive level that didn't take into account the systems needed to support that change.

maybe the problem is caused by a loss of talent during layoffs.

it could be that they're constrained by proprietary systems that are just too dang hard to upgrade.

Whatever the cause is, we then need to put ourselves in their shoes and think about why the problem persists. Don't say budget. Perceived value trumps budget. I've watched prospects steal budget from other departments to get what they want when they want it bad enough.

However your prospect perceives the reason for the problem will color their willingness to engage with content about how to solve it. This insight may also provide insights about other things your prospect is dealing with that monopolize their attention and give them sleepless nights.

Think about how you can thoughtfully address the issues that underly the problem to build empathy with your prospects. If you can get your prospect's attention by showing this depth of understanding, you've got a chance to become the "anchor" upon which they'll rely to figure out how to eliminate the complexity and costs attributable to the problem—likely chosing your company to help.

January 07, 2010

62% of sales and marketing executives asked said their company's message DOESN'T stand out in the marketplace.

So fix it!

I've long been a big fan of David Meerman Scott's Gobbledygook Manifesto. In fact, I wrote about it in my book. The general premise being that if you can yank identifying marks (graphics, company names, etc.) and the remaining content could belong to any company, you've got a messaging problem.

With all the noise and clutter clamoring for your prospects' and customers' attention, can you afford not to stand apart? No, you can't.

I haven't found a company or client yet that didn't have something unique and different they could say about themselves - we just had to unearth what that was. And boy, if you can't find it, you've got more than a messaging problem!

Here are a few places to look for that secret sauce that can source differentiated messaging:

Your approach to solving your customers' problems.

Your intellectual property - why you do what you do.

Lose the Gobbledygook - go ahead, try plain English and see what happens.

How do your customers' articulate the value they get from you?

Your view of the future or what's next after today's problems are solved...

Your employees' passion in working for you - why do they show up everyday?

Get your products out of your messaging and look at what's left.

It takes work to be different. I think we're out of excuses for not doing that work. Don't you?

Coming January 2015

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